George Leigh Mallory (1886-1923) was the only climber to take part in all three of
the British pioneering expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s. Born in 1886,
Mallory was the son of a clergyman. He was an idealist and a romantic, and eventually
married and had three small children. A schoolmaster by profession, he switched in 1923
from teaching boys to teaching adults, which he found very rewarding. During the
Great War of 1914-18 he had served at the front as a gunner. He was a neat and bold rock
climber and a competent ice climber, but his greatest assets were vivacity and a love
of adventure. He would seize the moment and encourage his fellow climbers to follow.

Those who set off on the reconnaissance trip of 1921 had no idea what they were up against. But as Mallory put it, "to refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a pea in its shell." They were walking off the known map, with high hopes of scaling a mountain no Westerner had ever seen at close quarters, venturing into atmospheres thinner than anyone had climbed into before. For its day, going to Everest was like going to the moon. Although conditions were unfavourable for a proper attempt on the mountain that year, Mallory was convinced that a clear route existed all the way to the summit.

The following year a stronger climbing team, approaching along the East Rongbuk valley, was able to push on to a height of 27,000 feet, higher than anyone had climbed anywhere, but still 2,000 vertical feet short of the highest summit in the world.

When plans were formulated for a third attempt in 1924 Mallory was unsure whether he wanted to go again to Everest. It was a wrench to leave home again, but in the end Mallory thought it would be rather grim to see others, without him, engaged in conquering the summit.

It was this third attempt on which Mallory and his young companion, Andrew Irvine dissappeared. At the time, Mallory was a few days short of his 38th birthday. To this day no one knows what happened to them. Nor do we know if they trod the summit snows almost thirty years ahead of Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, but their names live on in Everest legend.